Capital One: We Can Visit Cardholders at Home, Work

Capital One's new update for credit card holders contains some language that sounds pretty alarming to David Lazarus at the Los Angeles Times: The firm says it "may contact you in any manner we choose"—including a "personal visit" that could be "at your home and at your place of employment." If that wasn't enough, Capital One says it "may modify or suppress caller ID and similar services and identify ourselves on these services in any manner we choose," meaning it reserves the right to try to trick you into picking up the phone.

So has one of America's biggest credit card issuers turned into a stalker? A company spokeswoman tells Lazarus that it doesn't send debt collectors to homes or workplaces, except as a "last resort" for repossession of big-ticket items like snowmobiles. The clause about the phone-spoofing is purely because "local phone exchanges may display our number differently," the spokeswoman says. Customers should consider whether they want to believe a company rep's non-binding word, or the language in their contracts, Lazarus writes. In the meantime, they "may want to watch out for bunnies boiling on the stove." (More Capital One stories.)